P&C Best of the Rest & Out of Office Up All Night

Bloodhound61

Well, I may have gotten myself snookered with this afternoon’s offer from P&C. Buy a bag of their BOTR and get a tin of Up All Night thrown in. Complete impulse buy, but I was thinking how much general puffing I do all day and that I don’t require anything special while preoccupied with the task at hand and not with the pipe. So I bit.

Anyone have any experience with either?  I’ve found I like sweet rum, so the Up All Night sounds up my alley if it’s of any quality.

ghostsofpompeii

@Bloodhound61 Up All Night is okay, but the best of the lot is Gone Fishing - which appears to be completely sold out and they're not producing anymore. As a tinned tobacco it is probably the cheapest around (dollar wise not quality). It's on par with the better aromatic OTC blends from Captain Black. So if you enjoy an aromatic blend it's a nice change-up to add to your cellar. So don't consider yourself snookered. It is a moist blend - but a lot of aromatics are as well and it's never kept me from smoking them.   

Woodsman

Being that BOTR is the remainders of the blending/packaging tables, it is mostly Aro's. I bought some a few years ago and it wasn't anything that I like.  

Bloodhound61

@ghostsofpompeii & @Woodsman, many thanks for the feedback. I’ll keep my fingers crossed as I do enjoy aromatics. I figured that at that price I could only go so wrong and potentially be pleasantly surprised. Worst case, they can be blended into my canister for mutt tobacco, I reckon.

Bloodhound61

Thought I’d post a follow up to my original query with my findings in case someone else is tempted by a similar offer.

The bag of BOTR that I received was of a homogenous Virginia, ribbon cut, that tended to smoke pretty hot. There was a pleasant, modest sweet tin note but little flavor when smoked. I can’t say that I was happy with this, even as a budget purchase. 

So I did what any self-respecting obstinate fellow would do when confronted with a mistake. I doubled down and bought more budget tobacco to blend with it. In this case, Smoker’s Pride Black Cavendish. That was a pleasant surprise and on it’s own does not compare unfavorably to BCA if that suits your palate.

Blended, the result was not half bad, I have to say. What I ended up with is actually very similar to 1Q in appearance, tin note, and taste. The end result was 4 Mason jars of, to my taste, pretty good everyday tobacco. All in all, not bad. I’d hesitate to repeat the experiment only because there’s no assurance of what the next bag of BOTR would consist.

ghostsofpompeii

@Bloodhound61 I'm a firm believer in 'waste not want not' and when I come across a blend I don't like I'll find a way to make it tolerable through blending it with something else. As an aromatic smoker I find a lot of ultra sweet blends that are better when toned down with something less flavorful. Oftentimes the marriage can make for an enjoyable smoke. Still nothing that I would have intentionally purchased ... but now something I can smoke and not be put off. You'll find that by sprinkling a pinch of BOTR with a favorite blend will rid you of that supply much faster than you might imagine - while stretching out your tobacco supply. 

Bloodhound61

@ghostsofpompeii, true enough, the blending saved it. As a matter of fact, I neglected to write up my impression of the free Out of Office tin, but that might find itself pinched into a few bowls as well to sweeten them up just a bit. I don’t dislike it, however my taste buds want their Barbados Plantation when they want a rum tobacco. How ya gonna keep them down on the farm once they’ve had that?